DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 323 



to the adulterations so often practised by the Indians, 

 bears a higher price both in America and Europe*. 



The quantity at present annually exported from 

 South America is said by Humboldt to be 32,000 arro- 

 baSj there worth 500,040/. sterling'' — a vast amount to 

 arise from so small an insect, and well calculated to 

 show us the absurdity of despising any animals on ac- 

 count of their minuteness. So important is the acqui- 

 sition of this insect (of which the Spanish government 

 is extremely jealous) regarded, that the Court of Di- 

 rectors of the East India Company have offered a re- 

 ward of 6000/. to any one who shall introduce it into 

 India, where hitherto the Company have only succeeded 

 in procuring from Brazil the wild kind producing the 

 si/lvestre cochineal, which is of very inferior value. 



Lac is the produce of an insect formerly supposed to 

 be a kind of ant or bee •=, but now ascertained to be a 

 species of Coccus, whose history will be adverted to 

 when I come to speak of the secretions of insects ; and 

 it is collected from various trees in India, where it is 

 found so abundantly, that, were the consumption ten 

 times greater than it is, it could be readily supplied-^ 

 This substance is made use of in that country in the 

 manufacture of beads, rings, and other female orna- 

 ments. Mixed with sand it forms grind-stones; and 

 added to lamp- or ivory-black, being first dissolved in 

 water with the addition of a little borax, it composes 

 an ink not easily acted upon when dry by damp or wa- 



* Humboldt's Political Essay on New Spain, iii, 72-9. 



•" Ibid. 'ui. 64. — Dr. Bancroft estimates the present annual consump- 

 tion of cochineal in Great Britain at about 750 bags, or 150,0001bs.— 

 worth at the present price 375,000/. " Lesser, /.. ii. 165. 



Y 2 



